News & Events

Field Day - Over 35,000 radio "hams" active June 27-28

6/26/2009

The Drake State Technical College Amateur Radio Club will join thousands of Amateur Radio operators, often called “hams,” in showing off their wireless capabilities June 27-28. Erecting radio stations in community parks, campgrounds, schools and emergency centers throughout the country, they will hold a “Field Day” and show their emergency communications abilities while having fun talking to friends all over the continent with their radios.

The Drake State Amateur Radio Club will be hosting it’s Field Day Event from Noon on Saturday June 27th to 3:00 pm Sunday the 28th near “Lot 57” of Monte Sano State Park RV Camp Grounds. The club will feature three radio systems from their mobile RV center being provided by Mr. Harriston Bankston, owner of Bankston Mobile Homes.

Over the past months, the news has been full of reports of ham radio operators providing critical communications in emergencies world-wide. During fires, hurricanes, tornados and other crises, Amateur Radio was often the only way by which people could communicate. Amateur Radio operators are often the first to provide information and observations to responders in crisis situations. FEMA, DHS, the National Weather Service, and emergency management offices have the Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES®) operators in their emergency communications plans. On June 27-28, the public will have a chance to meet and talk with the hams and see for themselves what the Amateur Radio Service is about as they display their digital and satellite capabilities, voice communications, wireless, radio and Web hybrid systems, and even historic Morse code.

The event, called "Field Day" is the climax of "Amateur Radio Week" sponsored by ARRL, the National Association for Amateur Radio. Using only emergency power, ham operators will construct temporary stations around the country for the weekend and send messages in many forms without the use of phone systems, internet or other infrastructure that can be compromised in a crisis. More than 35,000 amateur radio operators across the country participated in last year's event.

Amateur Radio is growing in the United States. In just the past 4 years over 100,000 new people earned their first Amateur Radio Service license from the FCC.
Almost 50% of US Amateur Radio operators have now gone far beyond the entry level licensing requirements for Amateur Radio and earned higher class FCC licenses.
There are more than 660,000 Amateur Radio operators in the US, and 2.5 million around the world.

To learn more about Amateur Radio, go to www.WeDoThat-Radio.org or for information regarding local events, visit the website for the Drake State Amateur Radio Club at http://n4dtc.org.

The public is most cordially invited to come, meet and talk with the hams. See what modern Amateur Radio can do. They can even help you get on the air!